What do the different boxes mean on Betfair?

When you open up a Betfair market for the first time it may seem a little confusing.

Unlike a bookmaker, which will only have one price for a team, Betfair lists 6 different prices.

These are less complicated than they look.

The most important numbers are the ones in the coloured boxes. These are the current odds for backing (blue) or laying (pink) that team.

At Betfair we are almost always placing lay bets, so the number in the pink box is the one we are most interested in.

The numbers on either side of the coloured boxes are what we call the 'queue'.

Betfair is a marketplace and, like any other marketplace, different traders will offer different prices. The white boxes represent people in the marketplace who are offering slightly worse prices.

In the image above the best available lay price is 1.70, and there is $264 available to lay at that price. Once that is gone the next best price is 1.72.

If someone was to take all of the available liquidity at 1.70 the numbers would move along and 1.72 would then be in the pink box.

If you are placing a large bet, which requires more liquidity than is available, it is important to look at the queue so that you tell how the market will move after you place your bet.